The last of the three great National Parks we are featuring this month is Washington’s North Cascades Park. It is also the last of our parks to be designated as such, with park status only coming in 1968 with the passing of the North Cascades National Park Act. The park along with two “National Recreation Areas”, Ross Lake and Lake Chelan, and all are managed as the North Cascades National Park Complex.

However long before it became a National Park this area was well known for its beauty and ruggedness. One of the chief missions of the Washington State Library is to “Collect, preserve, and make accessible to Washingtonians materials on the government, history, culture, and natural resources of the state.” In other words, for anything to do with Washington State history, we are a great place to start.

While we do not have a primary source record from the Native American viewpoint we have information about the native cultures of the area.

Mierendorf, Robert R, and Kenneth C. Reid. People of the North Cascades. Seattle, Wash: National Park Service, Pacific Northwest Region, 1986. I 29.2:C 26/6 c.2

But what if you wanted to learn about contemporary park management or the environmental aspects of the park? We not only collect Washington State Documents but as a Federal Repository we collect and provide access to federal documents about the park.